U.S. Army Veteran served in Japan at end of Vietnam War
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — Charles Officer was born in Enid, Oklahoma, in 1955. In 1966, when he was 11 years old, his family moved to Wichita. Charles attended Wichita Public Schools, including a couple of years of high school. That’s when he decided to go in a different direction.
The year was 1974, and the Vietnam War was winding down. Rather than wait on possibly getting drafted, Officer took matters into his own hands and volunteered to join the U.S. Army, in his words, “to get it out of the way.”
In addition to completing his basic training at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, Officer also earned his GED. Then, he was assigned to Fort Gordon, Georgia, where he thought he would join jump school and the 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne).
“Originally I went in, I was going in as jump school. I was gonna be in the 2nd Airborne, but they cut out jump space. So, they decided that they couldn’t fulfill the obligation because you got extra money for every jump you did,” said Officer. “And they decided that they gave me an obligation to do something else, and I went into communications. I ended up being a 36 Charlie.”
A 36 Charlie installs, operates, maintains, and wires cable and telephone communications systems and equipment.
“But in combat, I was the one that had been crawling with the …” he nervously stated and laughed at the same time. “I was the one getting shot at for communications.”
Air Force pilot flew over 100 bombing missions over North Vietnam
Fortunately, Officer never saw combat.
After four months at Fort Gordon, he was sent to Fort Lewis in Tacoma, Washington.
“Well, I suppose to have been doing the same thing I was trained to do (at Fort Gordon). But all I did was play football,” said Officer.
“A lot of people don’t realize that in the military, they’re high on their sports. When I left Fort Lewis, I went to Okinawa, Japan, and in Okinawa, there was approximately 600 military Army,” he explained. “Okinawa’s a Marine and Air Force Base. But out of that 600 (troops), I can guarantee 400 were athletes. And that’s what we did. We played sports.”
Officer did a little bit of telephone lineman work in Okinawa, and he said whenever he left base, he had to be very careful.
“Well, when you’re stationed overseas, and you left base on your own, you’re always in danger because there’s no one there to look out for you. You have to make the right decisions,” he said. “I’ve seen a couple of GIs hung for having an accident. Being high on LSD. Remember, that was heavy back in the early 70s. And they hung GIs. Charged a $1.50 a head to watch it.”
Vietnam was over at this point, but he was in Japan, where only 20 years earlier, the U.S. dropped two atomic bombs on the island.
“The problem that we saw was after the bomb, you know, they dropped the bomb over there. Okay. I mean, we’d go into to caves and actually see what the bomb did. And see, you know, see people’s skeleton just into the concrete,” said Officer.
When his 14-month tour in Japan was complete, Officer received an honorable discharge. After all, there was no war to be fought. After returning to Wichita and attending Wichita State, he moved back to Washington State and went to work for Pacific Northwestern Bell.
Then, in 1980, Officer decided to come back to Wichita for good. He caught on at Southwestern Bell, where he stayed until he retired in 2010.
Deaths of friends and fellow Marines led Wichita veteran to attempt suicide, write a book
“Well, I was a cable splicer. Got bored with it, and I went into cable repair. Got bored with it and went into engineering. Got bored with it, so I retired,” said Officer.
Officer says what he enjoyed most about the Army was meeting people from all over the country and from all around the world. He said it was a good learning experience.
He also credits the Army with setting his life on a straight path. He said as a young man, he was going down the wrong path, and the Army made him a better man.
If you want to nominate a veteran for our Veteran Salute, email KSN reporter Jason Lamb at jason.lamb@ksn.com.
For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KSN-TV.
